Purchase of the United States Virgin Islands, 1917 Other State Department Archive Sites Purchase of the United States Virgin Islands, 1917 Beginning in 1867, the United States made several attempts to expand its influence into the Caribbean by acquiring the Danish West Indies. However, due to a number of political difficulties in concluding and ratifying a treaty to govern this exchange, this collection of islands did not become a part of the United States until their formal transfer from Denmark on March 31, 1917. After the transfer, the United States Government changed the name of the islands to the Virgin Islands of the United States. The Danish West Indies were controlled by several European powers before coming under Danish control in the late 1600s. The Danish West Indies were further enlarged by the 1733 purchase of the island of St. Croix from France, and an 1848 revolt led to the abolition of slavery in the colony. However, after the 1830s, the islands entered into a period of economic decline, and the Danish government found that the West Indies colony was becoming increasingly expensive to administrate.

In 1867, Secretary of State William Henry Seward attempted to acquire the Danish West Indies as part of his plan for peaceful territorial expansion. Seward successfully negotiated a treaty that was ratified by the Danish parliament and approved by a local, limited-suffrage plebiscite. The treaty also allowed islanders the choice to remain Danish subjects or become U.S. citizens. However, the U.S. Senate, angered over Seward's support of President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial, rejected the treaty. John Hay, U.S. Secretary of State from 1898 to 1905, was also interested in acquiring the Danish West Indies, as part of his broader plans for American expansion and securing the route of the future Panama Canal . In 1900, the U.S. and Danish governments again entered into a treaty, which the Senate ratified in 1902. However, the upper house of the Danish parliament did not ratify this treaty, deadlocking in a tied vote. The 1902 treaty did not contain a plebiscite provision, nor did it accord U.S. citizenship to the islanders. The U.S.

purchase of the Danish West Indies was thus delayed again. In 1915, especially after the sinking of the Lusitania , the issue of the U.S. purchase of the Danish West Indies again became an important issue in U.S. foreign policy. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and Secretary of State Robert Lansing feared that the German government might annex Denmark, in which case the Germans might also secure the Danish West Indies as a naval or submarine base from where they could launch additional attacks on shipping in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. Lansing thus approached Constantin Brun, the Danish Minister to the United States, about the possible purchase of the Danish West Indies in October of 1915, but Brun rejected the proposal. Many Danes resisted U.S. acquisition of these islands as they expected that the unfortunate civil rights record of the U.S. in the early twentieth century would have disastrous consequences for the predominantly black population of the Danish West Indies. The Danish government thus required that any treaty transferring ownership of the islands to the United States would make provisions for a local plebiscite, U.S. citizenship for the islanders, and free trade.

Lansing rejected these provisions claiming that these issues fell under the jurisdiction of Congress and thus could not be extended by treaty. Lansing also objected to a treaty provision that Danish citizens be guaranteed the legal rights that they currently enjoyed on the islands. Concerned about recent events and Danish recalcitrance, Lansing implied that if Denmark was unwilling to sell, the United States might occupy the islands to prevent their seizure by Germany. Preferring peaceful transfer to occupation, the Danish government agreed to Lansing's demands, and Brun and Lansing signed a treaty in New York on August 4, 1916. The treaty was approved by the Danish Lower House on August 14, and subsequently passed by the Danish Upper House. The treaty was approved by a Danish plebiscite (though not a Virgin Islands plebiscite) on December 14. Subsequent re-approvals of the transfer were passed by both Danish houses, and then ratified by King Christian X of Denmark. The U.S. Senate ratified the treaty on September 6, and it was signed by Woodrow Wilson on January 16, 1917.

Formal transfer of the islands occurred on March 31, 1917, along with a U.S. payment to Denmark of $25,000,000 in gold coin. United States colonial policy distinguished between citizens and "nationals," or inhabitants of colonies to whom the rights of U.S. citizenship were not conferred. However, U.S. officials initially displayed inconsistency on that status until Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk wrote on March 9, 1920 that Virgin Islanders had "American nationality" but not the "political status of citizens." The U.S. Virgin Islands were administered by the U.S. Navy from 1917 to 1931. Full U.S. citizenship to all residents born in the U.S. Virgin Islands was extended in 1932 by an act of Congress, and a 1936 act accorded a greater measure of self-government, although the islands would not have an elected governor until 1970.

Virgin Islands History - Virgin Islands Virgin Islands History Flags of the Virgin Islands Early Inhabitants The first residents of the present United States Virgin Islands (USVI) were the Ciboney, Caribs, and Arawaks. In 1493, Christopher Columbus visited these islands. He had been searching for a route to India and consequently he called the people he encountered Indians. Columbus named the beautiful islands ‘The Virgins’ in reference to the legendary beauty of St. Ursula and her 11,000 virgins. The period after Columbus’ visit was quiet as far as exploration and colonization is concerned. Explorers as late as 1587 reported evidence of Indian habitation however settlers by 1625 reported not finding Indians. It is believed that Spanish settlers on nearby Puerto Rico raided the islands on a regular basis. Some Indians were forced to work while others fled. Indian groups lived throughout the Caribbean, however European exploration and colonization brought demise to the indigenous groups. They had no immunity to European diseases and were not prepared to deal with the harsh labor they were forced into. Within several decades following colonization of the Caribbean, Indian populations had plummeted.

Today they are found on reserved lands on only a few islands. They no longer exist in what is today the USVI. St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John In the early 1600s many countries took interest in the Caribbean and in “the Virgins”; Holland, France, England, Spain, Denmark and the Knights of Malta all sought colonies. England and Holland colonized and jointly inhabited St. Croix in the 1620s. The neighboring Spanish on Puerto Rico invaded the small colony; the French then quickly moved in, removing the Spanish and taking over themselves. St. Croix remained a French colony until 1733. The Danish West India Company first attempted to settle St. Thomas in 1665. They successfully established a settlement on St. Thomas in 1672 consisting of 113 inhabitants. They expanded and settled on St. John in 1694. The Danish had claimed St. John as early as the 1680’s, however hostility from the neighboring British on Tortola prevented the Danes from establishing a settlement. The British, in order to maintain hospitable relations with Denmark, eventually ceased their opposition.

After the Danes settled St. John plantation agriculture developed rapidly. The Danish West Indian Company purchased St. Croix from the French in 1733 bringing St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John together as the Danish West Indies. Slave Trade and Piracy In 1685, the Danish government signed a treaty with the Dutch of Brandenburg. This treaty allowed the Brandenburg American Company to establish a slave-trading post on St. Thomas. Early governors also approved of St. Thomas becoming a pirates’ safe haven. The governors realized an influx of pirates would benefit local merchants. While piracy ceased to be a factor in the island’s economy in the early 1800s, the slave trade continued. In the Danish West Indies slaves labored mainly on sugar plantations. Cotton, indigo and other crops were also grown. Sugar mills and plantations dotted the islands hilly landscapes. Each islands economy prospered through sugar plantations and slave trading. While St. John and St. Croix maintained a plantation economy, St. Thomas developed into a prosperous center of trade. Slave rebellion on St. John and St. Croix are well documented. Legitimate trade and business on St.

Thomas influenced a different society where many more slaves were given freedom and an opportunity outside of plantation life. A July 2, 1848 rebellion on St. Croix, where some 5,000 blacks were free while another 17,000 remained enslaved, prompted liberal governor Peter von Scholten to declare what he had long pressed for, that all unfree in the Danish West Indies were from that day free. While his proclamation was in direct contradiction of the King’s orders and while plantation owners refused to accept the proclamation, slavery was abolished on July 3rd, 1848. Strict labor laws were implemented several times after emancipation and the populous reacted in tense labor riots. Planters began to abandon their estates and the population and economy in the islands declined. The islands and its residents fell on rough times in the late 1800s due to the poor economy and numerous natural disasters. US Territories The islands remained under Danish rule until 1917, when the United States purchased them for $25 million in gold in an effort to improve military positioning during critical times of World War I. St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John became the US Virgin Islands.

While conditions improved, change came slowly and frustrations brewed. Residents felt deceived when they were not granted American citizenship immediately following the transfer and disappointment also existed in that the islands were run by Naval administrators and appointed officials. The Military and the Interior Departments managed the territory until the passage of the Organic Act in 1936. Today the USVI is a U.S. territory, run by an elected governor. The territory is under the jurisdiction of the president of the United States of America and residents are American citizens. National Park In 1956 Laurance Rockefeller gave the National Park Service a generous gift of 5,000 acres of land on St. John. This gift along with subsequent additions have increased the holdings. Today almost two thirds of St. John’s beautiful forest, shorelines and underwater lands are protected by the Park. Historical and marine treasures on St. Croix including Buck Island are also protected by the Park Service, as are portions of Hassell Island. Water Island: The 4th Virgin Island In 1996 Water Island, located in St. Thomas’ Charlotte Amalie harbor, was officially returned to the USVI from the Department of the Interior. Today Water Island is the fourth United States Virgin Island.

Tourism In the mid 1900s the Virgin Islands saw the dawn of new times, more prosperous times. Tourist seeking the the warmth, beauty and relaxation the USVI offers, vacationed in the islands. Hotels, restaurants and shops began popping up on beachfront properties and in main towns. With the rise in business and economy came a rise in the population as immigrants from neighboring islands flocked to the USVI to work. Today the population of the USVI is made up of people from all over the Caribbean. The islands entered the new millennium as one of the premiere destinations for tourist visiting the Caribbean. More History Virgin Island History A Brief History of the Danish West Indies, 1666-1917 The Danish West Indies consisted of three small islands in the Caribbean situated to the east of Puerto Rico, namely Saint Thomas since the 1660s, Saint John since 1718, and Saint Croix from 1733. Altogether these islands make up only 333 square kilometers. The colony was characterized by trade and shipping in Saint Thomas and sugar plantations in Saint Croix, whereas Saint John was considered as just an appendix to the neighbouring Saint Thomas.

The three islands stayed a Danish colony until 1917 when they were sold to the United States. Before 1666 Before the Europeans came to America, the Antilles were inhabited by Indians. Quite a number of excavations have been carried out by Danish archaeologists in order to get an impression of these original inhabitants, especially in Saint Croix around the Salt River area which is today a National Park. This area was exactly where Christopher Columbus and his men landed in November 1493 during his second voyage from Europe across the Atlantic. The islanders - Tainoes - succeeded in chasing the Spaniards away after an intense fight. Columbus named the archipelago the Virgin Islands after the legend about Saint Ursula and her eleven-thousand virgins. After a long period of Spanish control, other European powers got involved in trade and shipping to the Caribbean, and from the early seventeenth century they tried to establish colonies of their own which could produce the costly colonial commodities, first and foremost sugar and tobacco. In the wake of Netherlanders, Englishmen and Frenchmen, the Danes started sailing to the Caribbean.

At the beginning as crew members onboard foreign vessels, but from the 1640s under the Danish flag. The Danes were particularly interested in the island of Saint Thomas which was not expressly claimed by any other European nation and which was favoured by an excellent natural harbour. Danish Settlement During the first half of the seventeenth century the Danes had established small tropical colonies in Asia at Tranquebar on the Coromandel Coast, and in Guinea at Accra on the Gold Coast. Now, they turned their attention to the West Indies, and in 1666 they settled on Saint Thomas. The island was occupied in the name of the King of Denmark by Erik Smith. However, because of difficulties in cooperating with Englishmen and Netherlanders who were already living in the small island, and because of illness, Smith and most of his compatriots died. After one-and-a-half year the surviving Danes gave up their plans and temporarily left the island. Activities under the Danish flag in the area became much more effective as from 1671, when the Royal Chartered Danish West India and Guinea Company was founded.

The Company was an institution much alike a modern joint-stock company, which the King and other wealthy Danes and foreigners provided with the necessary capital. The Company was given a royal charter, granting it a national monopoly as well as several other favours. Now, the Danes occupied Saint Thomas and built a fort, called Fort Christian after the King, at the fine natural harbour to protect the town which eventually emerged and was called Charlotte Amalie after the Queen. For the rest of the decade, efforts centered on the founding of plantations and the establishment of trade links. Allotment of land attracted people of various nationalities. By 1680 there were 156 whites and 175 slaves occupying 47 small plantations on the island. By the first census in 1688 there were 338 free inhabitants on Saint Thomas, while 392 were slaves. As many as 45 per cent declared their nationality to be Dutch, 3 per cent were Flemish, and 13 per cent were Danish. The only town on Saint Thomas was the center at Charlotte Amalie.

The most important products, which at this early time were shipped to Denmark in an annual ship, were tobacco, raw sugar, and small amounts of cotton. Problems for the Danish West Indies developed in the 1680s as a result of the Company�s constant need for extra capital and its stubborn insistence that both imports and exports be carried on its own vessels and handled by its own personnel. In 1708 the Company was forced to grant a long list of concessions to the prosperous plantation owners, including the acceptance of the latter�s right (under license) to ship and trade their produce with North America and Europe. Because of Denmark�s neutrality during the War of the Spanish Succession, Danish colonial trade flourished in the early eighteenth century. Virtually all the land on Saint Thomas was brought under cultivation. Consequently, the neighbouring small island of Saint John was annexed in 1718. Slavery It had turned out that the Indians were not suitable for the hard work in the plantations, and it was almost impossible to persuade Danes to go to the West Indies in order to work. Therefore, like in the rest of the Americas, Negro slaves were imported from Africa.

Many European vessels at this time went along the triangular route � from Europe to Africa with a wide variety of commodities for trading with the Africans, from Africa to America with black slaves, and from America back to Europe with sugar and supplementary colonial products. The so-called Middle Passage from Africa across the Atlantic was terrifying to the slaves, conditions onboard were dreadful and the mortality high. The remains of one of the Danish slave ships, the Fredensborg, has been found in our days on the Norwegian coast where it was wrecked in 1768 after having sailed almost all the way along the triangular route. After the wreck of the Fredensborg was located and identified in 1974, one of the main tasks was to research the extensive written materials preserved in Danish and Norwegian archives pertaining to the ship�s journey. These texts, together with the items that were retrieved from the wreck � from exotic goods such as elephant tusks and dyewood to the crew�s tobacco cans and shoes with fine buckles � constitute probably the most thorough documentation of a slave ship found as a wreck anywhere in the world.

Thus, it is known that on this voyage the Fredensborg took 265 Negro slaves onboard in Africa, 24 of whom died en route across the Atlantic. The survivors were sold at good prices at an auction in Christiansted on Saint Croix. Conditions for the enslaved Africans in the West Indies were harsh. Many slaves tried to escape from their masters into the bush, they went maroon. An everlasting source for anxiety among the white population was the imbalance between the number of free and the number of slaves. Thus, on Saint Thomas in 1725 there lived 324 whites as opposed to 4,490 blacks. The proportion was the same in Saint John where a slave rebellion took place in 1733. The small Danish garrison was killed together with many other whites, while many plantation buildings and sugar fields were burned or destroyed. Most of the rest of the white inhabitants fled from the island which was under control of the slaves for almost a year, until they were killed or defeated and thereupon strongly punished. St. Croix At this time the Danes urgently needed a new beginning. Both Saint Thomas and Saint John were totally cultivated, so further expansion had to take place somewhere else.

Consequently, in 1733 the Danes bought the island of Saint Croix which is situated around 60 kilometers south of the other two islands. Saint Croix was larger and more fertile, and the timbered lowlands were quickly cleared and covered with sugar plantations. By 1751 all the fertile land on the island had been claimed, and 64 sugar works were in full operation, worked by Negro slaves. The fortified towns of Christiansted and Frederiksted were established on St. Croix immediately after the Danish takeover. Trade with the islands was liberalized in 1733. But dissatisfaction with the Company�s right to first claim the principal products of the three islands continued. It was only after the planters appealed directly to the King, however, that the Company was dissolved in 1754. By this time Saint Thomas�s plantation culture had passed its peak. Production and population continued to grow in Saint Croix, however, which quickly became the main Danish island. The population there included at this time 2,000 whites and 14,000 slaves.

After the dissolution of the Company, the crown took over administration of the three islands in 1755, and trade was opened to all Danish and Norwegian citizens. Sugar Raw sugar soon became by far the most important product from the Virgin Islands. Thus, in the decades from 1734 to 1754 sugar made up 86 per cent of the total value of goods exported from the islands to Denmark, while the rest of the produce consisted of cotton, rum and tobacco. The sugar was made from cane, which ripened one year after having been planted and after having been taken good care of in the meantime by the slaves. The cane was harvested and carried to the plantation�s sugar mill where they were crushed, whereupon the sugar juice was led to the boiling-house. Here it was concentrated and thereby transformed into brown raw sugar, called muscovado sugar. An important by-product from this process was rum, which in its young and strong form was called kill-devil. The raw sugar was shipped in big barrels to Denmark where it was refined and thus transformed into fine white sugar loafs. Around the middle of the eighteenth century, Danish ships were carrying only 3 per cent of Europe�s sugar imports from the Caribbean.

Nevertheless, to Denmark this trade was very important as much of the sugar was reexported from Copenhagen to foreign ports in the Baltic, England, France, the Netherlands, etc. Society From 1755 the Danish crown took over the colony from the Company. In charge of everything thereafter was the Governor General who ruled the islands assisted by a number of Danish civil and military officials. Thus, priests, customs officers, judges, schoolmasters, clerks, officers, private soldiers, etc. were Danes, and the official language was Danish. By far the most of planters and merchants, on the other hand, were of other nationalities, often immigrated from other islands in the Caribbean to the socially tolerant and politically neutral Danish West Indies, where almost everybody was welcome, who wished to settle there. This meant that the majority of well-to-do people were foreigners and that the everyday language became English, but Dutch and French was also often heard and read in the small cosmopolitan society. The black inhabitants often spoke Creole among themselves. Among the important planters were men with names such as Beverhout, de Wint, Heyliger, and Uytendaele.

Plantations were named as for example Rust up Twist on Saint Croix, Wintberg on Saint Thomas, and Beverhoutberg on Saint Jan. Palmy Days The second half of the eighteenth century were palmy days for the Danish West Indies, as Denmark stayed neutral during the many great wars, especially the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. When the crown took over the islands in 1755, the system of local government was reorganized and the administration made more effective. For the sake of Saint Thomas�s trade, the harbour of Charlotte Amalie was opened to ships of all nations a few years later. Because of Denmark�s neutral status, the island became a commercial center for goods from all over the region, which were sent on to Europe in ships under the Danish flag. Until 1807 the boom also depended on Saint Croix�s flourishing sugar production. The end of these palmy days came when Denmark became involved in war with Great Britain and the three islands in the Caribbean were occupied by the British in 1801-1802 and again 1807-1815. The occupations were effected without any military resistance from the Danes.

The number of Danish soldiers in the colony was always very limited. During the first half of the eighteenth century the force increased slowly to a total of 226 men. From the late eighteenth century until 1872 the number of soldiers was about 400, whereas it was reduced drastically thereafter. All through the Danish presence in the islands, however, the local burgher militia constituted an important supplement to the regular troops. Abolition During the late eighteenth century when some people began to question the slave institution, a new situation developed. The Danes imported about 1,000 Negro slaves annually from Africa. This was necessary to keep up the slave population in the islands, which in 1792 in Saint Croix alone amounted to approximately 22,000, while there lived 1,000 free blacks and 2,000 whites on that island. In 1792 the King of Denmark established a commission to investigate the slave trade. The commissioners found out that mortality was high and fertility low among the slaves, and the slave population in the Danish West Indies was considered too small to reproduce itself.

In 1792 the King resolved that the Danish slave trade across the Atlantic should be abolished as from 1803. The motives behind this very first ban on slave trade were humane, economic and political. Imports of new slaves from Africa was encouraged, however, in the meantime, and until 1802 the slave population of the Danish islands increased from 25,000 to 35,000 persons. Emancipation Slavery continued in the Danish West Indies after 1803 and the sugar production of Saint Croix continued to turn a profit until the 1840s. At that time sugar prices fell, as competition was intensified from beet sugar grown in Europe and cane sugar from the larger Caribbean islands with more industrialized ways of production. Another aspect was that while slavery continued in the Danish West Indies it had been abolished in other colonies, thus in the nearby British islands in 1833. During the 1830s and 1840s discussions were going on in the Danish islands, where the slaveowning planters opposed emancipation, whereas Governor General Peter von Scholten and his allies advocated emancipation.

A few small ameliorations for the slaves were carried through, but they still did not win their freedom. At last, unrest broke out in Frederiksted in Saint Croix in 1848, and Peter von Scholten took the opportunity, caused by the danger of a veritable slave rebellion, to declare that slavery was abolished immediately in the Danish West Indies. Emancipation, however, did not by itself solve the problems of the black population. Living conditions did not improve substantially for the now free labourers, first and foremost because Saint Croix�s small and old-fashioned plantations with their exhausted land were no longer profitable. The Danish colonial authorities sought to smoothen the transition from slave economy to a workforce of free coloured labourers by imposing a complex of very detailed regulations, which were considered as far from satisfying by the labourers. In 1878 a labour riot broke out among the unsatisfied blacks, during which Frederiksted was burned. During most of the second half of the nineteenth century Saint Croix experienced general stagnation and decline followed by numerous social and economic problems. St. Thomas Let us turn our attention to Saint Thomas for a moment.

After being turned into a free port, the island experienced palmy days during the second half of the eighteenth century as a regional shipping center. Furthermore, a significant amount of exchange of goods took place via the large merchant houses of Charlotte Amalie. Shipping from Denmark fluctuated heavily along with world economic trends. Between 1755 and 1838 an average of 53 expeditions per year were sent from the home country to the Danish West Indies. Almost every ship took a direct course across the Atlantic, while just a very few sailed along the triangular route. After the British occupations of the islands were over in 1815, their trade and shipping soon prospered again. Partly thanks to the intense traffic to and from the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies in South America, which achieved freedom around 1820, partly due to the increasing trade and shipping with the United States, further promoted by the commercial treaty which was signed by the two countries in 1826. However, the decisive breakthrough for the port came when the British post packet boats began to put in to Saint Thomas from 1835.

It was simply the most conveniently situated Caribbean harbour for ships coming from Europe, and a very well equipped port with floating dock, repairing shops, lighthouses, bunker facilities, etc. From 1839 onwards steamships made their entry with a vengeance, because the British Royal Mail from that year onwards began to send its many post steamers directly from Southampton to Saint Thomas. The Danish harbour thus became the centre of the Royal Mail�s extensive activities in the Caribbean. Soon, one of the harbour�s most important products became bunker coal. The total number of vessels that called the port annually from the 1840s to the 1860s was about 2,000-4,000, and the annual tonnage was 200,000-300,000 tons. By far the greatest number of ships had sailed from harbours in the Caribbean, whereas the largest of the ships had crossed the Atlantic. Only a minor part of the tonnage was Danish-owned, the major part being British and American.

Shipping reached its peak in the 1860s and 1870s when 4,500 ships, totaling 800,000 tons, arrived each year. One of the harbour�s and the whole island�s problems was that the place was unhealthy, since it was often plagued by yellow fever and cholera. On top of this, the place was sometimes severely ravaged by hurricanes, for example in 1837, 1867 and 1916 (and again in 1989 by hurricane Hugo). Technological developments around 1870 also put Saint Thomas at a disadvantage. The advent of the telegraph reduced the need for trading vessels to call at Saint Thomas for news. And the development of better steam engines meant that ships from Europe could reach all destinations in the Caribbean and Central America without the need to take on extra coal along the way. For this reason the big British and French liners moved their headquarters away from Charlotte Amalie. Others, however, primarily the important German Hamburg-America Line, kept their attachment to Saint Thomas.

Around 1900, 2,000-3,000 ships a year called at that harbour. The general tendency, nevertheless, was a decline. Sale Negotiations During the American Civil War, the North States had needed port facilities for their Navy in the Caribbean. Therefore the United States wanted to take over Saint Thomas and Saint John with the fine natural harbours. The Danish government was willing to sell, and a treaty was agreed upon in 1867 by the two parties. However, due to domestic American political complications the sale was not effected. From the 1870s and for the rest of the Danish period economic conditions worsened. Each year there was a substantial deficit in the public budgets of Saint Croix, as well as those of Saint Thomas with Saint Jan. The deficits had to be met by the Danish state. At the same time the population decreased slowly but surely from 38,000 in 1870 to only 26,000 in 1917. The decrease was partly caused by high mortality due to illness, bad housing conditions etc., and partly by emigration.

While the Danish West Indies in the early nineteenth century had attracted many immigrants from throughout the region, the situation had become the opposite by the close of that century when emigration from the Danish West Indies was predominant as a response to inequitable land distribution and industrial down-sizing. Many Virgin Islanders found work cutting sugar cane in other islands in the Caribbean, or as seamen, or were recruited for work in constructing the Panama Canal. As social and economic problems in the islands increased, the Danish government opened new negotiations with the Americans. And in 1902 a draft treaty was agreed upon by the two governments. This time, nevertheless, the Danish parliament refused, by the narrowest possible margin, to sell the colony, first and foremost because of strong nationalistic sentiments in Denmark. New Initiatives Time had come, therefore, for Denmark to do something essential to improve conditions in the depressed islands. The colony was released from its debt to the Danish state, the colonial administration was reduced and made more effective, and in 1906 a new Colonial Law rendered the right of voting to the colonial councils to a larger part of the population. More important than these public measures were a number of private initiatives that were taken.

An agricultural society was established in Saint Croix where land was bought and experiments were carried out in order to boost and rationalize the sugar and cotton production. Much Danish capital was also invested in new installations and improved facilities in Saint Thomas harbour. Actually, a new large wharf was constructed, the harbour was dredged, a new Danish steamship line was established, etc. It was all too late, however, as the structural changes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries definitively were against the economy of small possessions in the Caribbean. Saint Thomas experienced a shift from profitable commission trade to less remunerative coaling, provisioning and repair. And the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 turned out, in spite of all Danish hopes, to do the port no good, as steamers just by-passed Saint Thomas but did not stop on their way to the canal. When the First World War broke out in 1914 conditions in the small Danish colony worsened even more. Agriculture on the islands was in deep crisis, and trade and shipping came almost to a standstill. The ordinary people experienced very hard times, reacting by protests and strikes.

Transfer The United States were interested more than ever in buying the Danish West Indies, partly in order to prevent Germany from establishing a naval base there. A sales price of 25 million dollars in gold was offered in 1916 by the United States, and after a hectic public debate and referendum in Denmark, the treaty was ratified by the two parties. The transfer of Saint Thomas, Saint John and Saint Croix from Denmark to the United States took place on 31st March 1917. Practically all Danes left the islands and went home to Denmark. Since 1917 The remaining islanders in what had now become the United States Virgin Islands had been looking forward to improved living conditions under American rule. But the following years turned out to become hard. The much needed reforms within education, health care, and business investments were not carried out. The sugar from Saint Croix had problems in being let in on the American market, while rum was a bad business during the American prohibition period beginning in 1919, and just a few ships called at Saint Thomas.

The islands became known as America�s Poorhouse, but some improvement was experienced when the New Deal program was applied to the Virgin Islands during the 1930s. The three small islands were under Naval rule until 1931, when the first civil administration was appointed by the American President and confirmed by the Congress in Washington. During the early 1930s the economy went from bad to worse as a result of the worldwide great depression, and a considerable number of Virgin Islanders emigrated to the United States. Voting rights were limited to less than six percent of the islanders because of income, sex and property requirements until 1936 when universal suffrage was given. After the Second World War general conditions began to improve as the beautiful Virgin Islands slowly attracted more and more American tourists, especially after the United States had broken off all relations with Cuba and closed that island to American tourists in 1962. Since 1954, the status of the three islands has been that of an unincorporated territory under the administration of the federal Department of the Interior, but with self-government in a number of fields.

In the early 1960s, industry was boosted by the establishment in Saint Croix of Harvey Aluminium Company and Hess Oil Refinery. Nevertheless, tourism has become the most important source of income. One-and-a-half million tourists visit the islands each year, mostly arriving on cruisers in Saint Thomas for a one-day visit. Since the 1960s the United States Virgin Islands have developed into a modern American society, today with 110,000 inhabitants, only half of whom are native born Virgin Islanders. They elect their own governor since 1970, a local senate and a delegate to congress. The Danish heritage is predominant in several ways in the United States Virgin Islands today. Suffice it here to mention the many old buildings such as forts, churches, town houses, sugar mills and plantation houses that are still standing in good shape. Another thing worth mentioning is that the old streetnames in Danish have been kept. The Danish cemeteries are still there. And many Virgin Islanders today wear typically Danish names. So, the Danes has left their stamp on the former Danish West Indies in many ways. U.S.

Took Ownership of the Virgin Islands A female Carib Indian, native of the Virgin Islands U.S. Took Ownership of the Virgin Islands March 31, 1917 If you owned a tropical island, what would you call it? The U.S. chose the name "Virgin Islands" when it took formal possession of the Danish West Indies on March 31, 1917. The U.S. bought the islands from Denmark for $25 million. The island chain consists of St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John, and about 50 other small islands, most of which are uninhabited. The islands are in the Lesser Antilles, between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. When Christopher Columbus landed on St. Croix in 1493, the native Carib Indians occupied the islands. Sadly, by the time Europeans began to settle there in the 1600s, most of the native population had died from diseases introduced by early explorers. page 1 of 3 Transfer Day Transfer Day Transferday video 1917 The 31st of March is recognized every year as "Transfer Day" in the United States Virgin Islands.

This day commemorates an event that occurred over eight decades ago, when the Danish West Indies were formally ceded to the United States by Denmark; thus, becoming the U.S. Virgin Islands, in exchange for twenty-five million dollars. The United States' interest in the Virgin Islands was primarily for their strategic location, while any economic benefits were secondary. The islands represented a much needed foothold in the Caribbean for the American navy, and later were looked toward as a base to guard the Panama Canal. American negotiations with the Danish government can be characterized as ones of strategic diplomacy. All offers of proposed purchase came on the heels of American military conflicts. American interest in the Virgin Islands dates back to as early as the mid-1860's. At the eve of the Civil War, budding American imperialism, and the need for a Carribean naval base, prompted Secretary of State William H. Seward to begin to investigate the islands as a possible coaling station for U.S. naval and merchant vessels. On October 24, 1867, after nearly two years of extensive negotiation and a visit to the islands by Seward, himself, the Danish government ratified a treaty, in which Denmark would cede the islands of St.

Thomas and St. John to the United States. The price was to be seven and a half million dollars in gold, provided the treaty received the consent of the islandsï¿½ population. Unfortunately, within a year the islands were visited by a hurricane, an earthquake, a tsunami and a fire. The tsunami was so severe that it left the steamer, the U.S.S. Monogahela (pictured at left), Commodore Bissel, and its crew, stranded on the Frederiksted wharf. However, for more than two years the treaty failed to receive the ratification of the United States Congress in response to the wave of natural disasters, the imperialistic overtones of the treaty, and concerns over the possible impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. By the end of the Spanish American War, Secretary of State John Hay expressed renewed interest in the Virgin Islands to the Danish government. Beginning on January 29, 1900, and over another two years a new treaty was negotiated, in which the Danish government would cede the islands of St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix to the United States for the sum of five million dollars. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Congress.

However, the Danes returned the thirty year-old diplomatic insult, and neither house of the Danish legislature ratified the treaty. Such diplomatic fencing caused the following the satirical poem at left to appear in a local newspaper. Click Here to read copy of the original, or click on the picture to view an enlargement. Subtle efforts to negotiate the purchase of the Virgin Islands by the United States continued after the failure of the Treaty of 1902. However, by 1915 American interest had become heightened by fears of the impending crisis in Europe. The General Board, headed by Admiral Dewey informed Secretary of State Robert Lansing, that the purchase of the islands would not be advantageous as the site of an American naval base in light of the recent acquisition of Puerto Rico, but that the purchase would be wise in order to deter any other power from gaining bases in the Caribbean. Dewey, felt that this tactical defense of the Panama Canal was just politically by the Monroe Doctrine and by increased German efforts to consolidate the islands through commercial, diplomatic or perhaps even military means. In March of 1916, Secretary Lansing sent a drafted treaty to the Danish Ambassador in Copenhagen Dr.

Maurice Egan, offering twenty-five million dollars in gold coins for the islands, with instructions to deliver the proposal to the Danish government. On August 14, 1916, at the Biltmore Hotel in New York City, a revised treaty was signed by Danish Minister Constantin Brun and Secretary of State Lansing. The U.S. Senate approved the treaty on September 7, 1916 and by December 21, 1916 the Danish Rigsdag had approved the treaty as well. Finally, on January 17, 1917 the treaty ratifications were exchanged and the treaty finalized. The official transfer of the Danish West Indies to the United States did not occur until 4:00 PM on March 31st, 1917, when a formal ceremony was held in the islands. At the State Department a U.S. Treasury Warrant for twenty-five million dollars was given to Danish Minister Brun. The document pictured at left is an original proclamation from the Danish town of Helsingoer, calling for a public referendum on the 14th of December, 1916, regarding the sale of the Danish West Indies.

The formal ceremony is well chronicled in the Saturday, March 31, 1917, edition of the St. Thomas Bulletin. The article is copied below. Program (Copied from an Actual Newspaper Account) On the day fix for the formal transfer of the Danish West India Islands to the United States of America the following ceremony will take place at the hour fixed -4 p.m. local time. The transfer takes place at the same time in all three islands. The formal transfer, mentioned in 4 of the Convention, of all the islands to the Representatives of the United States of America, Commander Edwin T. Pollock, takes place at St. Thomas through the undersigned Governor as Representative of His Majesty Christian the Tenth of Denmark. The formal act of transfer takes place at the premises in front of the military barracks. A guard of honor from the cruiser Valkyrien under the command of an officer and with the band on its right wings draws up in front of the barracks, with their back to the building, and the American guard of honor draws up right opposite facing the Danish guard.

The non-commissioned officer in acting charge of the barracks and the gun crew take their stand at the salute-battery, and men designated to lower and hoist the National Flag of their respective countries take their stand at the flag-staff. The officials or those specially invited to attend the ceremony take their stands as follows, turning their back to the fort: Nearest to the Kings Wharf the officials and then the members of the Colonial Council, the Consular body and other parties invited. When the Representative of the United States leaves the American man-of-war a salute of 15 guns is fired from the "Valkyrein" flying the United States Flag from her fore-mast, and the same salute is fired from the fort on the landing of the Representative. On his landing he is received by the Governor and the Colonial Secretary together with whom he passes along the front of the Danish guard-of-honor, pass the officials and those specially invited, before the front of the American guard-of-honor, and thereafter to the barracks officer-quarters, where protocol regarding the transfer is signed. This being accomplished the Governor takes his stand in front of the Danish guard-of-honor, the United States Representative in front of the American guard-of-honor.

In the name of His Majesty King Christian the Tenth, the Governor proclaims the islands transferred to the United States of America upon which the guards-of-honor present arms, the Danish National Flag is lowered while the Danish band plays the National Anthem, and a salute of 21 guns is fired from the salute battery and all the men-of-war. The guards-of-honor change places. The Representative of the United States proclaims the islands taken into possession, the guard-of-honor present arms, the American National Flag is hoisted while the American band plays the American National Anthem and a salute of 21 guns is fire from the battery and all the men-of-war. After prayer by Bishop E. C. Greider the Agent for the United States, Commander Edwin T. Pollock, U.S. Navy, announced his being duly appointed Acting Governor of the Virgin Islands of the United States of America. The retired Governor having passed the front of the Danish guard-of-honor, the guard marches off. The newly appointed Governor then returned to the U.S.S. Hancock, whereupon a salute of 17 guns was fired in his honour as acting Governor of the Virgin Islands of the United States of America. At St.

Croix the proclamation is read in Christiansted by the Dispatching Secretary, in Frederiksted by the Policemaster and the barracks analogically with the change at St. Thomas takes place under the charge at respectively the Chief of the Gendarmery Corps and the Commanders of the Detachments. At St. Jan the proclamation is read by the Policeassistant whereafter the changing of the flag takes place. If you wish to view the Transfer Program in its original form, click on the picture for an enlargement. After the Dannebrog was lowered over Government House in the Virgin Islands for the last time, the flag was made into several smaller ones. The one pictured was given the Reimund Baumann a former judge and governor of the Danish West Indies. This flag was given to the Danish Consulate of the Virgin Islands, by Solange Baumann wife of Harold Baumann, the son of Reimund. Special thanks to her for her generosity in allowing others to view this historical item. Reimund Baumann Pictures from 1997 Transfer Day Ceremony: Left to Right: First Row, Ambassador Hans Grunnet (N.Y.) Mrs.

Niels Helveg Peterson, and her husband, Minister Foreign Affairs Niels Helveg Peterson (DK) The Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands, part of the West Indies, are located approximately 40 miles east of Puerto Rico. The islands number more than 100 and were sighted by Christopher Columbus during his second voyage in 1493. In the following years, the European presence was fiercely resisted by the native Carib Indians. Their antipathy toward the outsiders was so great that Emperor Charles V later ordered their extermination; that enormity was completed in the early 1600s. Spain held little initial interest in colonizing the islands, but used a number of the protected harbors to shield treasure-laden ships from pirates. At different times, control in the islands was exerted by Spain, England, France, Holland and Denmark. The Danes purchased St. Croix from the French in 1733, established a permanent colony on St. Thomas in 1672 and settled St. John in 1717. Danish control of the major islands continued, except for two brief British occupations during the Napoleonic Wars, until the 20th century.

The islands' economy was dependent upon sugar and cotton production by slave labor. Foreign confidence in trade with the islands was dampened by news of two major slave uprisings. However, the abolition of slavery in 1848, which eliminated the means of production, plunged the islands' even deeper into economic turmoil. Following the Civil War, inquiries were made by the United States government into purchasing the Danish West Indies, but negotiations were not completed. Construction of the Panama Canal and the rise of German naval strength induced the U.S. government to consider the islands' importance again. Word was conveyed to the Danes that if Germany gave any indication of activity in the Caribbean, the U.S. would immediately seize the Danish West Indies. That warning no doubt put the Danes into a bargaining mood and led to the negotiation of an acquisition treaty in August 1916. The Senate ratified the agreement the following year and authorized the payment of $25 million for the new possessions. The U.S. Virgin Islands, as they came to be known, occupy a strategic location on the Anegada Passage, a prime shipping lane leading to the Panama Canal. St. Croix, St. John and St.

Thomas (site of one of the best deep-water ports in the Caribbean) are the largest of the U.S. islands. Virgin Islands, Purchase of (1917) In Depth Tutorials and Information Virgin Islands, Purchase of (1917) Caribbean islands purchased from Denmark because of their strategic position en route to the Panama Canal. The 1917 U.S. acquisition of the Danish part of the Virgin Islands archipelago (Danish West Indies) consisted of the islands of St. Croix, St. John, St. Thomas, and some 50 smaller islets and cays, with a total area of 133 square miles and population of 26,000 inhabitants. The story of the purchase demonstrates a complex and multifaceted interplay between economic and budgetary concerns on the one hand and political and strategic considerations on the other. By the mid-nineteenth century, the Danish West Indies became a liability for Copenhagen, mainly because of the progressive decline of sugar plantations after the emancipation of local slaves and disappearance of cheap labor.

Despite the evident economic nonprofitability of the colony, the United States became increasingly interested in acquiring the islands as a strategic asset guarding eastern approaches to the Isthmus of Panama and later to the Panama Canal. Additionally, the United States feared the potential annexation of the islands by foreign powers in the 1860s, first by Austria and Prussia and later by Germany. Such an annexation would constitute a clear violation of the Monroe Doctrine and establish a foreign military presence in the excellent harbor of Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, an ideal site for a naval base. The Danes could not defend the islands from such a threat. The United States had tried several times to negotiate the purchase of the Danish West Indies. Between 1865 and 1867, Secretary of State William Seward conducted negotiations for the purchase of the islands with the Danish minister in Washington, and Seward agreed to buy the archipelago for $7.5 million. The two countries signed the treaty October 24, 1867. Later that year the Danish Parliament approved the treaty, which the king then ratified. In addition, island residents voted overwhelmingly to transfer the Danish West Indies to U.S. control.

Coincidentally, in November 1867, the colony experienced a devastating earthquake, tidal wave, and tropical hurricane, which ravaged much of the local economy. These natural cataclysms reinforced the reluctance of Congress to approve the deal, and suspicions continued about Seward’s annexation schemes following the $7.2 million Alaska purchase, which was highly controversial. Additionally, the U.S. government remained financially preoccupied with the reconstruction of the South and development of the West. In November 1867 the House of Representatives rejected the Virgin Islands Treaty, and the Senate never voted on it. In 1902, Secretary of State John Hay negotiated a new treaty with the Danes, only to have the agreement rejected by Copenhagen because of the compensation (only $5 million) pledged by the United States. During World War I the fear of German penetration into the Caribbean revived the idea of the purchase. In 1915 the American minister in Copenhagen, Maurice F. Egan, and the U.S. secretary of state arranged the final $25 million deal. Representatives signed the treaty August 4,1916, and Congress approved it January 17,1917.

On March 31,1917, the United States officially took possession of the islands and renamed them the Virgin Islands of the United States. Although economically the islands remained unprofitable until the development of the tourist industry, their acquisition proved to be strategically sound, strengthening U.S. control over the Caribbean. Citizens of the U.S. Virgin Islands have U.S. citizenship and have a nonvoting representative in the U.S. House of Representatives. US Virgin Islands Map / Geography of US Virgin Islands / Map of US Virgin Islands - Worldatlas.com Print this map The Virgin Islands, an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States were originally settled by the Ciboney, Carib, and Arawaks peoples. First named by Christopher Columbus in 1493 for Saint Ursula and her virgin followers, these islands are renown for white sand beaches, crystal-blue waters and idyllic sailing venues. Up to and including the 17th century, these islands were captured and controlled by many European powers, including France , Denmark , the Netherlands , Spain and the United Kingdom .

In 1672, while expanding its influence into the Caribbean Sea , the Danish West India Company built settlements on Saint Thomas , then on Saint John in 1694; Denmark later purchased Saint Croix from France in 1733. Denmark transformed the islands into royal Danish colonies in 1754, and soon thereafter, the sugarcane business began to prosper, driven of course on the backs of slave labor. Across the island the economy continued to boom, but then across the Caribbean in the middle of the 19th century the abolition of slavery took hold and "free labor" was hard to find. In short order the Virgin Islands became unprofitable for the Danish government and they tried to sell them to the United States, but that deal fell through. Try as they might, Denmark could not turn a profit here and they tried to sell them once again to the U.S., but the offer was not approved by the Danish parliament because the price was too low. Then came World War I, and the United States worried that the Germans could possibly use the islands as a submarine base, so Denmark was offered $25 million.

Denmark said, "Yes," and the deal was signed on January 17, 1917. The U.S. took official possession of the islands on March 31, 1917 and renamed them "The Virgin Islands of the United States." Ten years later U.S. citizenship was granted to the inhabitants. Then and now, most Virgin Islanders descended from Africans, who were enslaved and brought to the Caribbean by Europeans to labor on sugar plantations. Most of the current residents were born on these islands. Even though residents are U.S. citizens, they cannot vote in U.S. presidential elections, however, they are able to vote in presidential primary elections for delegates to the national political elections. Steeped in maritime history and remnants of the many European cultures, the U.S. Virgin Islands remain one of the busiest cruise ship ports and family vacations destinations in all of the Caribbean. Covered with red-roofed buildings and houses, the capital city of Charlotte Amalie sits amidst lush green hills, and is widely considered the most beautiful port in the Caribbean. The duty-free shopping, hotels and restaurants on St. Thomas and St. Croix are second to none. See Also

Question: The USA bought the American Virgin Islands in 1917, from which country?
Answer: Denmark